Alternate Directions
by SLPikachu
Summary: Alternate scene to "Family is Where the Heart". This is another direction when I wrote "All Hell Breaks Loose" and what could have happened.


**Even though I work during the same time I still get to watch the new episodes of _Superntural_, I just have to deep clean the breakroom for an hour to do it. This week's episode gave me inspiration to write this alternate scene for my other story, _Family is Where the Heart is_. Its not much and may be a little too cheesy, but I figured since I am having writer's block with _Family is Where the Heart is_, I would write this to tide my readers over until I can update it. Hope you like it and tell me what you think, whether its good or sucks.**

Alternate Directions

"Nooooo!" Dean ran towards his younger brother when he saw Sam stabbed in the back by a dark-skinned young man. The young man took off right afterwards and Sarah ran after him.

Sam dropped to his knees just as Dean had gotten to him, falling to his own knees to catch him. He didn't look so well as blood leaked from his mouth and was unresponsive when Dean tried to talk to him. When Dean wrapped his arm around his brother, he felt a warm, sticky liquid on Sam's back and looked at it.

"No, no, no," Dean said, holding Sam up. "We're gonna patch you up. It doesn't even look that bad."

No response. Sam dropped his head.

"Sam? Sam?" Dean hugged his brother to him, tears starting to fill his eyes. "Sam!"

Bobby hurried back to Dean and saw Sam hadn't made it. "Sarah went after the guy. I couldn't keep up with them though," he explained.

Dean then remembered his daughter. Forgetting about his brother for a moment, he dashed in the direction Sarah and the young man had headed, running at full force. Bobby tried to follow Dean but he was just too fast.

He ran into the woods that surrounded the abandoned old west town they were in. Flames had appeared out of nowhere but that didn't stop him. Dean kept running, right through the flames, ignoring the scorching burns he had just received. He had just lost his brother there was no way he was going to lose his little girl too.

He ran as if he was running at the speed of light. "Sarah!" he called out. "Sarah, where are you?" Dean heard a gunshot and raced even faster to a clearing where Sarah stood, frozen to the spot, her gun out and the young man dead, on the ground. "Sarah."

Sarah turned around when she heard her name. When she saw who it was Sarah dropped the gun and hurried over to hug her father. Dean dropped down on his knees once more and wrapped his little girl in a tight embrace, thankful she was alive.

"I…I didn't want t-to, Dad," Sarah cried, softly in his arms. "He killed Uncle Sammy. We…we tried t-to help them…"

Dean shushed her. "It's okay, Baby Girl, it's okay. It'll be okay." Dean wasn't sure who he was convincing, him or Sarah. He spent his whole life trying to watch out for his little brother and now, Sam was gone. Dean had sacrificed so much for Sam, for their family. Dean held his daughter even tighter as he thought about everything that just happened.

Dean shot up out of a sound sleep, panting hard. He stared down at the comforter that was covering him before running his hand along his face, feeling the burn scars he still had and looked down at the back of his hand where more burn scars were, the moment flashing through his mind for a moment.

"Sammy," he murmured.

Dean twisted around to look at the digital alarm clock on his nightstand. _5:44AM_, it read. He threw back the covers and placed his bare feet on the soft, grey carpet, sitting there on the edge of the bed for a few minutes before standing up and heading across the hall, switching on Sarah's ceiling fan light. "Sarah, get up," he called out to her.

Sarah continued sleeping, soundly.

Dean flipped the light switch on and off, repeatedly. "Get your ass up, Sarah," he told her, a little louder, this time.

Sarah moaned eventually before lifting her head to look back at her father.

"It's six o'clock," he said before heading for the small, two bedroom-apartment's only bathroom.

Sarah rubbed her eye then threw back her _Mario Bros. _comforter, sitting up onto the edge of the bed.

Once Dean was out of the shower, he got dressed and headed into the small kitchen to start cooking. By the time he finished cooking the scrambled eggs, Sarah still wasn't in there. "Sarah, let's go or you're gonna be late!" he yelled as he poured the eggs onto their plates with the bacon and potatoes.

Sarah hurried from her bedroom and jumped up onto the stool with her backpack on.

"You want your chocolate milk?"

"Yes, please," Sarah replied as she took the fork he was handing her.

Dean went into the fridge and grabbed the carton of milk and container of chocolate syrup to set on the counter where Sarah was sitting at.

"Dad, I found something that sounds like it could be a ghost haunting," she said as she poured the milk in a glass first. "Not far from here either."

Dean grabbed a fork for himself and walked around the counter to sit on Sarah's other side. "Dude, I let you have Sam's computer for homework and to play games, not to look for jobs," he reminded her, sitting down and taking the milk to pour for himself.

Sarah sighed and squirted the syrup into her milk.

"Hey, you promised when the yellow-eyed demon was dead, you would quit hunting and I'm holding you to that promise." Dean scooped up some of his food and took the first bite.

"But, Dad," Sarah tried to protest.

"I mean it, Sarah Lynn. Just drop it, all right? And go easy on the chocolate, will ya?"

She nodded and set the chocolate syrup bottle on the counter in front of her plate. Using her fork to stir it, Sarah took a drink before starting on her breakfast.

After breakfast, the two of them left their dishes in the sink and headed out the door and down the stairs to where the Impala was parked. On the way out the door Sarah couldn't help stare at the framed pictures they kept on the window sill next to the front door of family and friends. There were a few of Sam, John, Bobby, Ellen, and Jo, and even the family photo when Sam and Dean were little, before Mary was killed.

Sarah looked at the group photo of her, Dean, Sam, and John she made them take back when they were all together for a brief period. John had thought it was ridiculous and argued that they had a job to take care of and how they didn't have time. It was Sam who stood up for his niece and insisted they take the picture if that was what she wanted.

Dean stopped behind her, placing a hand on her right shoulder, to stare at it too. "I miss them, too, Baby Girl," he told her, softly.

Sarah continued to stare at it before looking up at her father before they left the apartment. It had been two months since that night Sam died and Dean had killed the yellow-eyed demon but it was still heavy on their minds. Bobby had offered them to stay with him but Dean thought it was better to get a place of their own but said the older man was welcomed to visit any time.

Shortly after they moved into the apartment, Dean got Sarah enrolled in school and snagged himself a job as a mechanic. It wasn't much but they hadn't been on a job since Sam died. Dean almost fell off the wagon to pursue a possible job quite a few times. It was Sarah who kept him from it.

Dean drove the same route he always took to get to the school. The car ride was always quiet except for the radio playing a classic rock song as he stared ahead at the road. Sarah stared out her window.

After a while, Dean glanced out of the corner of his eye at Sarah and reached over to run his hand through her hair and Sarah would force a smile for him which Dean did the same. Eventually, he pulled into the school parking lot and parked beside the curb to let her out. "Have a good day, okay?" Dean leaned over to kiss her on the head.

"You too, Dad," she told him and reached up onto her left leg to give him a kiss on the cheek before sliding out of the front seat to walk up to the school.

"See ya later, Baby Girl," Dean called after her.

Sarah turned around to wave, walking backwards. "Bye, Dad. I love you."

"Love you, too," he replied.

Dean watched his daughter until she was safely inside the building before he pulled away from the curb, headed for work. He fought the urge to go check out the possible ghost haunting Sarah had found. It was difficult for him but he had promised Sarah, and made damn sure she kept her promise. Sarah looked up to him so he had to do the same he was insisting on.

Sarah took her seat at her desk when she walked into homeroom. When the final bell rang, the teacher took attendance and dismissed the class for first period. Sarah stood up from her desk and waited to let most of the other students go first, keeping to herself.

It felt awkward being back in school after being on the road for the last two years. Sarah would have preferred to be out hunting then sitting in a classroom while a teacher went over what her uncle had already taught her. P.E. was first on her class schedule.

Sarah was the last one to enter the girl's locker room and walked straight to her locker to set her backpack inside and grab her P.E. clothes, heading for one of the bathroom stalls. When she was changed, Sarah went back to her locker to set her clothes inside and closed it before sitting down on the long bench in front of it to wait for the teacher to take role call.

The first thing the girls did was stretch and warm up. Sarah stood in the back, the few past hunts playing in her mind as she copied what the teacher did. She was deep in thought she hadn't noticed the teacher walk around the class as she continued and stopped behind Sarah.

"Winchester," the teacher snapped Sarah out of her thoughts.

Sarah shot her head up. She hadn't noticed they were on another stretch and quickly switched to it.

"Two laps around the court," the teacher told her. "And the rest of you, girls, grab a ball and wait for further instruction." Everyone but Sarah ran over to grab a basketball and spread out among the gymnasium floor. Sarah started her laps, jogging around twice. With the practice she had, Sarah barely broke a sweat, not even taking that long.

"Two laps, Coach," Sarah told her, running up to her as the teacher was standing there holding her whistle while the class did dribbling drills.

The teacher looked Sarah up and down, and scoffed. "Yeah, right. You're not sweating or out of breath."

"Two laps around the gym are nothing to me, Coach," Sarah shrugged. "I've ran more than that before."

"Well then, I want however many laps it takes until you break out in a sweat. I don't want daydreamers in my class. Middle school and high school wouldn't tolerate it, so why should I?" The teacher blew her whistle, calling out another drill for the class to do.

Sarah sighed and started jogging around the gym once more. As she jogged, Sarah remembered chasing after Jake after he had stabbed her uncle, and soon the rest of the experience started replaying in her mind, of the rest of the psychic kids, and meeting up with the yellow-eyed demon a couple times.

As her father held her, comforting her, the yellow-eyed demon appeared behind Sarah. Both of them were flown through the air, away from each other and pinned to a tree.

"This is exactly what I was waiting for," the yellow-eyed demon sneered over at Sarah. "I knew you would be the one standing, the next American Idol."

Both Sarah and Dean struggled against their invisible binds.

"You son of a bitch," Dean glared at the demon with hate and bloodlust in his eyes.

The yellow-eyed demon looked over at Dean and sneered before walking over to him. "Well, well, well. Guess we're back to where we were a year ago. Except this time you don't have Daddy here to save you, now do you?"

Dean continued to struggle, not saying a word.

"That fire wall back there was supposed to stop you but you ran right through it. That was pretty brave of you. Not to mention suicidal."

"You killed my brother," Dean told him, coldly. "I wasn't gonna let my little girl die too."

"Sarah would have been safe and sound, there would be no doubt. I need her. As for you, you're useless up to this point. You've done what I needed for you to do."

Dean cried out as he felt a familiar pain inside of his chest.

Sarah cried out in horror, "Dad!" Suddenly, she was let loose and the demon was sent flying backwards, the Colt landing out of his pocket. Sarah hurried to her feet and grabbed it before running over to her father who had landed on the ground. "Dad, please be okay."

Dean painfully stood up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Quick, give me the Colt," he nodded at the gun in her hand.

Sarah handed it to him. By the time the demon was able to get to his feet again, Dean was standing there, holding the Colt at an arm's length. He pulled the trigger and released the bullet from its barrel, right at the yellow-eyed demon. It hit in the shoulder and his body was lit up before falling backwards again, this time dead.

Dean took a deep breath as Sarah walked over to him, slowly.

"We did it," Sarah breathed, heavily.

Dean agreed. "It's all over."

"Dean. Sarah." A familiar voice got their attention. They looked over to see none other than John and Sam standing there.

"Sam? Dad?" Dean questioned, surprised and hopeful at the same time.

"You did it, Dean," Sam smiled. "What we've been fighting for our whole lives. You did it."

"Are you both…?" he asked, taking a step towards them.

John shook his head. "I can't explain it, son. I don't know how I got out of hell. I just know Sam and I won't be with you anymore."

"But…"

"You have done so much for this family, Dean. More than you should have. It's over now. I want you and Sarah to go live your lives. I want the two of you to have a home, like I always wanted for you and Sam. Please, son," John told him.

"It won't be easy," Dean shrugged.

"We know," Sam replied. "Just please try, for us. Besides, I remember a certain someone who said they would when it was all over." The men turned to look at Sarah.

Sarah looked around her at them, starting to regret making that promise.

"Don't try to bring us back, both of you. That's an order," John told both Dean and Sarah.

"We promise," Sarah finally spoke up. "I love you, guys."

"We love you, too, Peanut," Sam smiled at her.

A tear appeared in her right eye. Dean placed an arm around her but Sarah bolted to her grandfather and uncle and hugged them both to her. John lifted her up and he and Sam hugged her to them. Dean walked over and joined them to share one last family hug.

When it was over, Dean and Sarah stepped back. The four of them shared one last look between each other before John and Sam flickered away, leaving Dean and Sarah alone. Sarah turned and hugged her father to her.

Sarah was snapped back to reality at that point. She was still jogging around the gym. She looked out at the other girls her age. They were all carefree and happy, the way children should be. None of them realized the darkness lurking where they least expected it. That was something Sarah's family made sure of, so no one had to be scared of. The world was safe thanks to how much the Winchesters had sacrificed. Both Dean and Sarah shook off their daily daydreams and tried once again to live their lives.


End file.
